The reason behind the whip
by pantalaimonsilver
Summary: Why does Franziska von Karma always carry that whip? A traumatizing story unfolds...


A young girl is sitting in a wheel chair in Hamburg, Germany, waiting. The girl has silvery blue and regular features. A woman, Jane Levin, is standing beside her. She is tall and everything about her is straight, from her pose to her hair. Jane is technically the girl's governess but Andrea always thought of her as her mother. She has never met her actual parents but she doesn't mind. She had Jane and her adopted father is coming to see her.She watches the other children as she waits. Not for the first time, she wishes that she is like them; able to run and play, not having to take 20 pills a day just to remain relatively healthy. Just than, shiny red sport car pulls up infront of the von Karma's estate and all her ailments were instantly forgotten. Miles Edgeworth opens the car door and steps out.

"Hello Mr. Edgeworth. I'm glad you're here." Andrea said, her mounting excitement hidden by the cooly uttered words. She was, after all, a von Karma, and von Karmas never show undue emotions.

"Hello Miss von Karma and Ms. Levin." replied Miles. He was never one for small talks and today, he is even less so due to the news he was about to share with Andrea and Jane. Since everything else would be extravagant and wasteful, he announced the news right away.

'Miss von Karma, would you like to come to America with me, I've found your birth mother ."

Such a simple sentence yet it sent Andrea's emotion into a whirlwind. She has never met the woman who gave birth to her and has always assumed she died at child birth. She knew the woman who gave birth to her was extremly young and that caused some of the problems Andrea has to live with. Sometimes, she hated that woman. When she wakes up in the middle of the night unable to breathe or some other things like that, she wished that woman excersied a little more sense and waited to have a child. However, she knew Miles Edgeworth would never bring her to any situation of potential harm so she went.

_Thousands of miles away in America_

Franziska von Karma is sitting in her living room. Though she couldn't have cared less about what it looked like, as long as it's functional, Edgeworth insisted that she redecorate her home for her child. _Her child. _It's a strange notion to grasp. For a long time, she forgot about this child, well she tried to. She pushed it to the back of her memory and buried herself with work to stop thinking about it. It was 8 years ago...

"_No! Stop it! FATHER! MILES!" a girl of 11 years had shouted. She wasn't sure what happened but somehow, she found herself in a dark room with the butler. "no…sniff…please don't hurt me" _

"_Silence!"_

"_stop…please…go away" whispered the girl one last time, then blackness._

_The next thing Franziska saw was Miles Edgeworth. She was lying on a bed, his, and he was gazing at her with a concerned look on his face. She wondered what she was doing on his bed and then she remembered. The horrible pain and helplessness. _

"_You're awake." Franziska was startled by the sudden sound. "What happened? I found you lying in the storage room…" Miles turned crimson. Franziska realized that she's not wearing anything under the blanket and turned crimson too._

"_It's a good thing Mr. von Karma isn't here, he'd murder you." _

"_It's not like it's my fault!" shouted Franziska defensively, then she thought about it and realized that he might kill her anyway. She added "Let's not tell Papa just in case though." Though she never asked why, she never saw the Butler again. Technically only her father could dismiss the servants but for this once, she didn't care about the rules._

_Everything continued as normal untill 2 months later. It was than Franziska noticed that she was gaining wait. She knew she was eating normally, perfectly as prescribed by her father with 8 servings of grain, 7 servings of vegetables, 4 servings of dairy, and 2 servings of meat each day. It made no sense that she gained wait. To compensate, Franziska decided to start jogging in the morning. One good thing is that Miles was being kinder to her. He'd always being immaculatly polite and sometimes even caring but he was mostly cold. Now as if the secret was creating a bond, he started doing nice things for her like explaining the laws to her so she could study faster instead of looking everything up in the index._

_4 months later, it was obvious what had happened. Though she never properly went to school, Papa had hired a governess for her until she turned 10 and she explained everything to Franziska. She had no idea what to tell Papa. Will he even notice if she kept silent? No, he'd notice and be more mad. One day after dinner, she told him. He wasn't mad in the typical sense but Franziska never forgave him for what he did._

"_You are not worthy of being a von Karma. A von Karma is NOT a tool of pleasure for the lowerly ones. You will bare this badge of shame without complaint and let it remind you everyday to be perfect. I will expect you to keep up with all your studies and not let this be an excuse for anything. Understood?"_

_Franziska wanted to shout No, it's not fair, I didn't do anything wrong! But habituallity took over and she submited meekly. "Yes, Papa." She thought that was the worst that will happen but she was wrong. 2 weeks later, Papa told her that Miles will be leaving to study law in America. Though neither of them said anything, she knew it was a punishment for him helping her.After Miles was gone, Franziska had to spend even more time on studying. Often, she skipped sleeping all together to memorize another set of laws._

_When the baby was born, she was imperfect. She was under weight and none of her organs were well developed yet. Papa took one look at the baby and banished it from his sight forever. She never saw the baby again. For her birthday present that year, a package arrived from America. It contained a single item, a whip._

A knocking on the door startled her back into the present. She goes to the door and opens it. She sees 3 people, 1 male and 2 females. The male was Miles Edgeworth. The woman she did not recognize but she knew instantly who the girl is.

"My…daughter…" Franziska mouthed silently, unable to speak like the fools she so often lashed out at.

Miles made the introductions. "Miss Andrea von Karma and Ms. Jane Levin, meet Ms. Franziska von Karma. Ms. Franziska von Karma, meet your daughter Miss Andrea von Karma and her governess Ms. Jane Levin."

Andrea couldn't believe how after all these years, she is finally seeing the woman who gave birth to her for the first time. She sits in a stunned silence. No, this woman would never be her mother. Only Jane could. However, she did give birth to her and now looking at her, Andrea believed that it wasn't the happiest moment in her life when she did.

Franziska couldn't begin to register the emotions in she felt. Shock, anger, sadness, but not love. Love is not in a von Karma's, or at least in Franziska's, range of emotions. Shock because she is meeting her daughter for the first time, anger because Andrea unintentionally ruined her life and because of Andrea's imperfections, sadness because she knew Andrea's imperfections are mostly her and the Butler's fault.

It was Jane who finally broke the awkward silence. "Ms. Franziska, do you have a bedroom prepared for Andrea? The plane ride made her quite sick." Fortunatly, Miles had warned Franziska and she had a room with two beds prepared already. After that, everyone started helping. After a while, Andrea was finally settled and ready for bed and Jane with her, Franziska and Miles went to the living room.

"So what is going to happen to Andrea now? Are you going to be her legal guardian." Asked Miles.

"Of course, a von Karma always accept full responsibility for her actions."

"Franziska, stop looking at this like a job. Andrea deserves love and attention that she will only get if you actually care about her. She has had a very tough life until now. After her birth, your father took her away to some obscure orphanage. There she was abused in every way possible. She was there until 3 years ago, when I found her. I took her away from the evil place and put her in the von Karma mansion. Along with her, I hired Jane, who was a teacher at the orphanage whom Andrea grew rather attached to. Then, I waited for you to grow up. Now, I think you are ready to be a mother." Miles stopped looking suddenly sheepish, he's not used to making long speeches.

"Fool! A von Karma is perfect in every way. Of course Andrea will get the best education possible and the best doctors will tend to her ailments. However, a von Karma only inspires 2 types of emotion , fear and respect! Only a foolishly foolish fool will expect something else."

--Silece--

"However, I will raise Andrea well, even if it falls short of the von Karma perfection."


End file.
